Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Response to Blog by Amanda Gibbs: Anti- creative movement

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I've been talking to my ten yr old(5th grade) sister a lot lately and it got me thinking about when Tom was trying to figure out what happens to kids between 5th grade and 6th grade. My sister, Jessica, who I will ask to start blogging if she wants, is running for student secretary and came to me to help her write her speach and ad slogan. I realized when talking to her that a lot of her creative ideas were starting to slip away from her. Determined to not let this happen, I started telling her about our class and about my ideas for my viral clorox campaign. At first she couldn't understand why the ideas that I was pitching her seemed like the wild and sparatic ideas of her younger peers (oxymoron? but makes sense in context). I told her that being older doesn't mean you have to be boring and not have an imagination. And to get back on topic for the ANTI CREATIVE MOVEMENT I would like to add 5th grade teachers and parents to the list because when their kids and students have an assignment like running for student council they encourage them to come up with ideas based on what seems to be the right way to come up with the idea. The boring way. And by doing this they forget to let the kids invent new ways of running campaigns.

Response to Blog by Amanda Gibbs: Anti- creative movement

5 comments:

Jeff said...

I think you're right Antonio. I hate 5th grade teachers and I hate parents. They are the worst. I remember when I was running a campaign in fifth grade and I wanted to run for a position they didn't have called "dragon tamer" they all said it was a bad idea. My point was no one was running against me so I couldn't lose. Plus who wants a wild dragon? My teacher and my parents said no. However I still feel if I was elected I could have done some really powerful things.

Luciano said...

Exactly. The craziest thing about it is that my sister is running for secretary because she thinks she'll lose if she runs for president. And the teachers are only letting Sixth graders run for president and VP.

Tom Laughon said...

I use kindergarteners as my role models for unbounded creativity. I use 6th graders as the benchmark grade that illustrates the impact teachers, peers, parents have on killing the creative the creative spirit in all of us. The saddest thing is that there are no universally supported strategies in our educational system to regain our creative spirit. In fact, it is just the opposite. The bottom line ... we are taught what to think, not how to think.

The challenge/opportunity is to think about how reignite the creativity that is in all of us and to let our little lights shine for the whole universe to see the results of our commitment.

Amanda Gibbs said...

I guess its campaign season since I saw dozens of campaign posters around my elementary school. Its sad because all the posters look the same. THe kids running are really either relying on popularity or who can make the best cookies lol. SO PLEASE help your sister make a poster awesome enough to stand out!! =)

Lucci said...

I think who can make the best cookies is the most important issue of the election. its a good platform to run on.